Last week, we released our report "Paying for Their Profits: How Ratepayers Foot the Bill for Soaring Utility Profits." Co-author of the report, @suesturgis.bsky.social, sat down with @robschofield.bsky.social to discuss the findings and what it all means. Take a listen:

Utility bills keep going up while utility company profits soar. Families shouldn’t be worried about keeping their lights on while shareholders see their profits rise. It’s time for a change. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article315085241.html

New from @jeva.bsky.social: The Salt River Project utility board has started early voting, but what happens when voting rights are decided by land acreage, Turning Point enters the chat, and data centers could throw the balance of power on its head? heatmap.news/energy/salt-...

Lower shareholder returns, consumer advocacy are needed to improve affordability, former utility regulator says.

I started [gulp] a substack. It’s called Utility Watch, and will feature @energyandpolicy.org's research, with opinions and analysis from me. My first post is on utility profits, and why the politicians increasingly going after them are smart to do so. utilitywatch.substack.com/p/welcome-to...

Investor-owned utility profits have soared as consumer utility bills have skyrocketed in recent years, according to a new analysis of dozens of electricity providers. https://stateline.org/2026/03/12/utility-profits-rise-as-household-bills-soar-new-analysis-finds/

Xcel Energy’s electric subsidiaries earned about 17 cents on the dollar in 2024 and about 15 cents on the dollar in 2025. minnesotareformer.com/2026/03/12/y...

The traffic to our new calculator tool that tells ratepayers how much of their monthly electric bill goes to utility profits is so high it just crashed our site. We're back online now, but love the enthusiasm!

🚨: Ever wonder how your utility bill is calculated or why it feels like it keeps rising year after year? Our new report, “Paying for Their Profits: How Ratepayers Foot the Bill for Soaring Utility Profits,” has answers. energyandpolicy.org/utility-prof...

It can't get any clearer than this. @whyy.org @susanphill.bsky.social https://whyy.org/articles/peco-rate-hikes-profits/

This week NARUC held its winter meeting — where regulators, commissioners and - let’s be honest, a lot of utility lobbyists - come together to talk shop. But as you may have seen in an exposé by @harpers.bsky.social, there are also some extracurricular things that happen, too.

Regulatory capture, served on the rocks! @NARUC #NARUCWINTER26 https://harpers.org/archive/2026/01/power-brokers-nick-bowlin-utility-bills/

The Salt River Project (an AZ utility) has a land ownership-based voting system to elect to their board. Public records show that a landowner converted almost 240 acres from an LLC to a trust juuust in time to vote all of those acres in the 2024 election. https://bit.ly/4qykvTL

EPRI, a utility membership organization, finds that a utility's coal plant has no health impacts (despite scientists, the community, and utility directors disagreeing). https://grist.org/climate-energy/a-nebraska-utility-says-that-its-coal-plant-poses-no-significant-health-threat/

New from @mlive.com: Few utility customers realize part of their bill goes toward helping pay lawyers and consultants to advocate on behalf of those utilities for *higher* rates. This is the case with DTE Energy... currently in the middle of a rate case. www.mlive.com/news/2026/01...

Listen I love the Red Sox but come on. Thanks for this digging, @energyandpolicy.org! energyandpolicy.org/edison-elect...

if i may say so - those sneaky bastards… www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Americans are paying record-high utility bills, and it’s not just inflation or extreme weather. A new @harpers.bsky.social investigation by @nickbowlin.bsky.social lays out how utilities, regulators, and Wall Street work together to lock in rising costs for customers. harpers.org/archive/2026...

A new report commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center finds utilities in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina are planning for data-center-driven electricity demand growth that has a roughly 0.2% chance of actually occurring.

The True Cost of Power: Duke Energy’s Climate Deception peels back the curtain on how Duke Energy, long after knowing fossil fuels drive climate change, supported denial and delayed the clean energy transition. This film shows why accountability matters. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiCh...

From @stateline.org: b/w Jan. and Sept. of this year, average home electricity rates increased 11.7% -- more than triple the rate of inflation. Some states have rejected rate increase proposals or promised affordability, but is it enough for consumers? bit.ly/455rEmv

🚨: A representative for the American Gas Association joined interviews for Maryland’s top utility regulator—despite the PSC regulating AGA members. Documents raise serious red flags about industry influence as utility bills continue to increase. bit.ly/3MPgWu1

What makes the most sense to help one of MA's most economically distressed communities? Raise their rates, of course! At least that's what Liberty Utilities plans to do with their 55% rate increase request - which would help recover nearly $95 million. bit.ly/48ZpO97 @cwbeacon.bsky.social

In short, yes, except under a few narrow circumstances -- but it doesn't have to be that way. There are states that completely ban cutoffs during the winter, and North Carolina could do so, too.

Today in @prospect.org: According to the Energy and Policy Institute (EPI), IOUs “often use donations to charitable organizations as a means to encourage organizations to support their political agenda.” Read it here: bit.ly/4pi4GRm

North Carolina's governor and attorney general are opposing Duke Energy's proposed rate hikes for its North Carolina utilities. www.qcnews.com/news/duke-en...

Top lawyers for Consumers Energy and DTE donated to a MI AG candidate's primary race. If she wins, this AG will go head-to-head against the utilities' attorneys on regulatory battles. Conflict of interest or good 'ol politicking? We'll let you decide. https://bit.ly/4q4AmK7

That's it. That's the post. (Report and graphics done by @tcfdotorg.bsky.social: tcf.org/content/comm...)

Private equity groups have focused in on utilities a lot more recently and one that's currently being tapped for a potential sale is the New Mexico Gas Company. Turns out when you don't really know what you're doing, things can get... messy. energyandpolicy.org/new-mexico-g...

Update: A spokesperson for the PUCO confirmed to @energyandpolicy.org that yesterday's order prevents FirstEnergy from recovering $108 million in shady "corporate overhead" expenses from customers of the company's Ohio utilities energyandpolicy.org/firstenergy-...

Great piece from @emilypont.bsky.social on a most obvious and elegant tool to ease the burden of rising utility bills, if state regulators are willing to use it: cut utility profits heatmap.news/energy/calif...

As Ameren rakes in hundreds of millions of $$$ in profits, they continue to disconnect thousands of customers for missing payments. Their offered solution is to have customers apply for LIHEAP - which was eliminated in the Trump administration's 2026 budget. www.ksdk.com/article/news...

A new analysis of consumer data shows past due balances to utility companies jumped 9.7% annually to $789 between April-June periods of 2024 and 2025. This overlaps with a 12% jump in monthly energy bills during the same period. apnews.com/article/trum...

You're never going to believe it, but DTE Energy is being tied to something shady from back in 2020 that is just now coming to "light." (See what we did?) Read more about DTE's alleged campaign finance scandal here: michiganadvance.com/2025/11/11/c...

A private equity company that *checks notes* failed to operate and maintain a water treatment facility and upon inspection there was found to be a build-up of sludge and bloodworms (🤢 ) now wants to purchase the New Mexico Gas Company. What could go wrong? energyandpolicy.org/new-mexico-g...

A New Mexico gas utility is the latest to face a private equity takeover bid, this time by a firm whose failure to properly maintain an earlier water utility acquisition led to sludge build-up and bloodworms on the system energyandpolicy.org/new-mexico-g...

Ameren, the monopoly utility serving the people of Missouri, made $640 million in profits last quarter. Yet records released by the MO Public Utility Commission shows Ameren disconnected over 17,000 households in October for missed payments. 1.5% of their customers. www.ksdk.com/article/news...

A new brief from the Center for Progressive Reform looks at alternatives to investor-owned utilities -- including electric cooperatives, publicly owned utilities, and community choice aggregators -- for achieving an equitable, clean energy transition.

A new complaint filed alleges Michigan Energy First, a dark money group tied to DTE Energy (👀), violated the Michigan Campaign Finance Act when it funneled $100,000 in an effort to roll back pandemic emergency rules in 2020. michiganadvance.com/2025/11/11/c...

“We’ve heard from a number of utilities who are willing to be patient and help support their households getting on those payment plans and avoid disconnecting them for lack of payment right now. But that hasn’t been universal." The cruelty! kstp.com/money-matter...

Southern Company: The Administration is so great. The new nuclear deal is amazing. So promising! Investor: Does the federal government's new $80 billion agreement make you more likely to build new nuclear? Southern Company: No.

FirstEnergy reported earnings of nearly $1B last year, but expects its customers to foot the bill for its $108M accounting screw up. energyandpolicy.org/firstenergy-...

Voters had receipts.

There's a campaign underway in Michigan to rein in runaway political spending by monopoly utilities and certain other corporations. Half the funds raised so far to oppose the measure trace back to Consumers Energy. energyandpolicy.org/consumers-en...

A new Michigan ballot initiative aims to keep monopoly utility money out of politics. You'll be shocked to hear who coughed up half the cash raised so far to fight... Find out here: energyandpolicy.org/consumers-en...

"Bills are going to go up — dramatically," said Kerwin Olson of Indiana's Citizens Action Coalition. Ratepayers "can't afford to pay what they're paying today. And disappointingly, the commission somehow justified that this proposal satisfies the affordability pillar of state policy."

Oh look, data center developers want more data centers. Who would have guessed? The Missourians for Data and Technology Advancement coalition, which launched Monday, said they aim to promote "smart, sustainable, and transparent data center development." www.ksdk.com/article/news...

When industry proposes "alternative ratemaking" as a means to reduce regulatory lag...we can't always believe them. Often this is used as a guise to introduce rate plans that reduce oversight around large-scale buildout that customers end up paying for. thenevadaindependent.com/article/sout...

Doesn't look like clean energy is raising the rates for folks in El Paso - looks like an expensive gas plant and shareholder profits instead! El Paso Electric is in the final stages of securing a rate increase that could raise bills ~$22/month. elpasomatters.org/2025/10/26/e...

"Data Center Developers 🤝 Utilities A new coalition launched in MO on Monday made up of what appears to be developers, utilities, and industry allies (🚩) stated they hope to promote data center transparency. Smells like manufactured support. www.ksdk.com/article/news...